Fried Wontons

By Marc Matsumoto

Hi! I'm Marc, and I'm here to elevate everyday meals by teaching you the basics while giving you confidence and inspiration to have fun in the kitchen! Sign up for updates and follow us, so you don't miss any recipes:

A few simple tricks for getting ultra crispy fried wontons that stay crisp long after you've fried them.

While Wontons are traditionally boiled, Fried Wontons have become increasingly popular both in the West and in China. With a chip crisp wrapper and a small morsel of savory filling in each bite it’s no surprise why, and they border on addicting.

Written in Chinese, the word Wonton (雲吞), literally means “to swallow clouds”, a reference to the billowing cloud-like wrapper of a Wonton (particularly when they’re boiled). This is why Wontons typically have a lot less filling that other dumplings such as Shaomai and Jiaozi, because you are meant to enjoy the wrapper more than the filling.

Nobody likes a soggy Fried Wonton, and there’s a great trick to getting the wrapper ultra crisp. Instead of sealing the wrapper shut like an envelope with water, you leave the majority of the folded wrapper unsealed, using just a dab of water to pinch the ends together. This allows the oil to circulate, frying the wrapper from both the inside and outside.

For those that make a lot of Asian dumplings you might assume the filling will leak out, or that the wontons will end up being greasy, but having tried this both ways, I can tell you that the filling does not leak, and if anything, the open wrapper makes for a less greasy wonton. The reason is that since the wrapper isn’t sealed the fat in the ground pork has a chance to render out and drain. Using this method will give you ear pleasingly crisp wontons that stay crisp long after you’ve fried them.

My last trick is to improve the texture of the shrimp by soaking them in an alkali solution (such as baking soda and water). It’s certainly not necessary, but It gives the shrimp a snap, kind of like the texture when you bite into a good sausage. You can read more about this on my Wonton Soup post.

Served with a tangy, sweet and spicy sauce, these Fried Wontons are irresistibly good, and while 60 may sound like a lot, they’ll disappear before you know it!

for filling

for wonton

60

wonton wrappers

2 tablespoons

Thai sweet chili sauce

1 tablespoon

rice vinegar

vegetable oil (for frying)

Steps

(optional) Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda to 4 cups of ice water and stir to dissolve. Add the shrimp and soak in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Drain, rinse well and then pat dry with paper towels.

All images and text on this website are protected by copyright. Please do not post or republish this recipe or its images without permission. If you want to share this recipe just share the link rather than the whole recipe.